On this edition of Your Call, we continue our two-part series on the US homeless crisis.
In January 2020, 580,466 people were homelessness in the US, according to official numbers. Seventy percent were individuals and the rest were families with children. Nationwide, many municipalities have adopted the “housing first” model, which prioritizes permanent housing. How did we get here, what strategies work, how can those successes be replicated, and what needs to change?
Guests:
Paul Boden, Organizing Director of the Western Regional Advocacy Project, a nonprofit supporting the rights of homeless people. He became homeless at the age of 16 after the death of his mother
Chris Herring, Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of California Los Angeles and Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard University’s Inequality in America Initiative
Web Resources:
Howard Center for Investigative Journalism: Two cities tried to fix homelessness, only one succeeded
University of Pennsylvania: The Emerging Crisis of Aged Homelessness
2021 Menino Survey of Mayors: Mayors and America’s Homelessness Crisis
